Ditch These 6 Common Myths To Create Financial Freedom

Before you embark on creating a Million dollar wealth portfolio, you need to get past the mystique and the myths surrounding how people create their Millions. How many of these 6 common myths about Millionaires do you believe?

1. Myth: Millionaires are smarter

People tend to put Millionaires on a pedestal: They believe all Millionaires are better or smarter than everyone else to achieve their goals. But that general statement simply isn’t true.

Millionaires are ordinary people who have achieved extraordinary success. AND they make mistakes like everyone else. Remember Henry Ford went bankrupt 3 times before he designed the first assembly line process to push production to meet demand and increase profits. Millionaires misspell words; they may even have learning disabilities. They’ve likely been in debt and had to dig themselves out. They’ve had ideas and businesses fail. They have worked their way up the ladder, learning and stumbling along the way.

Rather than being book smart, the majority of Millionaires have a knack for setting goals for themselves and working toward them — without letting excuses take over. They, too, have to deal with unexpected expenses — plumbing leaks, health insurance increases, car trouble. They keep moving forward despite the inevitable obstacles they need to overcome. They have sick children or spouse/partner, divorce, death and all the real life experiences. In the face of these life experiences they bounce back quickly.

2. Myth: Millionaires are luckier

Millionaires are simply the luckiest among us, right? Maybe they won the lottery, struck gold with their very first attempt at launching a business or haphazardly landed their dream jobs with massive salaries. Not so: Luck is not a factor in achieving success. Rather, truly successful people make their own luck. A million-dollar idea is worth nothing without execution. Have you watched the 'Shark Tank' reality show that showcases billionaire business owners, who invest in new products? Have you noticed sometimes the Sharks tells the person vying for an investment, "You have a hobby, not a business"--i.e. their business structure is missing. AND some people don't get an investment because the Sharks don't believe in the product--and that person went on to build a multi-million dollar business.

Jamie Siminoff pitched his company Doorbot on Shark Tank in 2013, he believed the then-financially struggling operation's future hinged on getting an investment.

After Siminoff pitched his idea — a WiFi-enabled doorbell that allows you to see video of and talk to people as they arrive at your front door — the judges weren't convinced. All but Kevin O'Leary passed, and he made what Siminoff considered an unacceptable offer. Siminoff didn't make a deal.

"I remember after that 'Shark Tank' episode literally being in tears, I needed the money, we were out of money at the time." Siminoff said. He'd invested $10,000 into building props for the pitch, and the company's staff of eight had spent a month preparing for the show, according to his blog. After leaving without an investor, it seemed the efforts all may have been a waste they couldn't afford. Siminoff wasn't only upset about the money, the critiques from investors, Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner about the product's ability to sell were fresh objections mirroring others' doubts about his idea. More feedback to consider.

"I can't count the number of people who didn't invest in this, who said 'no,' the number of people who said it was going to fail," Siminoff says. "I don't think [Microsoft] Excel could hold the number of records for it." In retrospect those people may wish they had paid more attention. The business, now re-branded as Ring and offering a suite of connective home security products, has seen immense growth since Siminoff appeared on Season 5 of "Shark Tank." "It has been five years since 'Shark Tank,' and the business is now valued at $1 billion," Siminoff, 41, says on an update for the show that aired Nov. 12, 2017 was vindication. "Today we have over 1,300 people, 10 core products, [sold in] 16,000 stores." Ring counts Virgin Group billionaire Richard Branson, who became interested after seeing one of its products, among its investors.

And to add frosting to Siminoff's business valued at $1B, he debuted as an investor on Shark Tank October 7, 2018. Siminoff came full circle in only 5 years. Take that--OH mighty Sharks.

3. Myth: Millionaires live lavishly

When you think of Millionaires, you might envision people living in luxurious mansions and driving expensive sports cars. The reality is Millionaires are often the people next door: They drive Hondas and Volvos. They’re frugal (57% of millionaires). The most famous frugal is the 3rd wealthiest billionaire, Warren Buffet, who lives in the home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He certainly has given the property excellent maintenance as any home owner does. Millionaires often spend their money on necessities and a few things that are very important to them.

In most cases, Millionaires have achieved their financial success precisely because they’ve practiced excellent savings habits and live frugally. They learn to make smart choices, and they don’t stop because they hit the $1 million mark. If anything, they’re validated by seeing the choices they made paid off.

4. Myth: Many Millionaires were born into money

Millionaires were born into money or inherited it. That’s seldom the case. In a recent survey, Fidelity Investments found 86% of millionaires are self-made. And among the more than 100 millionaires surveyed each was self-made and only 26% of them said they even had connections to important people beforehand.

2017 the U.S. reported close to 11 million millionaires, up 6 percent from 2016, according to data from the Spectrum Group's Market Insights Report 2018.

Another little known fact--20% of all U.S. Millionaires (approximately 2.2M) own an MLM business. Such companies as Avon, the first MLM company in the world, Amway, the second MLM company and the 3rd wealthiest billionaire in the world owns three MLM businesses. Based on those statistics it is safe to say, the MLM business model has become a sought-after wealth builder.

Dani Johnso, The speaker, best-selling author of “First Steps to Wealth”, “Grooming the Next Generation for Success” and producer of highly popular success seminars, started at the very bottom of rags to riches. Growing up on welfare and living with abuse throughout her childhood, Johnson ended up pregnant and single at 17. After a brief marriage at age 21, Johnson was left homeless and in debt. However, she wanted to make a better life for herself.

She was introduced to a multilevel marketing business a few years earlier and decided it could be a chance to change her situation. After attending a panel session in which four millionaires talked about how they’d built their incomes through the business, Johnson decided it was worth going for it. “I was told my whole life up to that point that I was nothing but a failure and I could never do anything right. I just sat there and thought to myself, ‘Man, if I’m the dumbest person in the room and it takes me 20 years to figure this out and to learn how to do what they do, and if I fail their income by 90 %, then I would still do better in business for myself than I ever would staying at my job that I had at the mall--making minimum wages.’”

For Johnson, her key to success wasn’t being born into money; it was being willing to give herself a chance. She started her first business from the trunk of her car and a pay phone booth, and in her first four days, managed to sell $4,000 in products, generating $2,000 in profit for herself. The next month, while still working part time as a cocktail waitress, she made $6,500 and her income “just continued to skyrocket from there,” she says. Today, she teaches others how to build success, no matter where they start out.

5. Myth: Millionaires are fearless

Though it might seem like the only way to become a Millionaire is to forge full-steam ahead and assume a lot of risk, fears are totally normal — even for the ultra-successful. Fifty-seven percent of the Millionaires said they were scared before starting their own business — scared of failure, disappointing their spouses or their families, scared of losing everything.

Building a business requires some risk, but wise Millionaires don’t take un-calculated gambles. Millionaires learned how to examine an opportunity and analyze the risk. They will even do small tests beforehand to see if an idea will work before going all in. They prefer to know as much information as they can ahead of time so they don’t make a bad investment.

Most Millionaires find a happy medium between optimism and pessimism; they learn how to examine opportunities realistically. They acknowledge amazing potential, but work tirelessly to learn and predict beforehand to make sure their investments pay off.

6. Myth: They earn Million-dollar paychecks

Many Millionaires have earned their money by starting (or selling) their own businesses or finding high-paying positions within organizations. But this certainly isn’t the only way to amass $1 million. In his book “Millionaire Teacher,” Andrew Hallam explains he saved over $1 million as a teacher well before retirement age, outlining how he used low-cost index funds and a disciplined approach to saving, investing and living on a budget to build a nest egg most of his fellow teachers would envy.

In addition to investing in the stock market, like Hallam, many Millionaires boost their bottom lines by adding second jobs or passive streams of income. For instance, investing in real estate can allow a middle-income wage-earner to develop rental income as a second, reliable income stream. Artists who pay the bills and invest with the income earned through a day job might sell paintings for hundreds or thousands of dollars on the side and bank the extra income. Those who don’t earn million-dollar paychecks can still reach the $1 Million mark; however, it requires discipline, creativity and focus on the goal.

Where are you on the rags to riches scale? "Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" - Audrey Hepburn

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